Monday
November 24, 2008
Edition 

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Monday November 24, 2008 Edition

Lew Dickey Jr., CEO of Atlanta-based Cumulus Media Inc., said sputtering advertising plus the upheaval in the stock market will cause a major shakeup in the landscape of broadcast radio over the next several years. “I think there’s going to be a pretty big shakeout and I think that half the companies in business today will be gone within 36 months,” Dickey said (read more - J. Scott Trubey - Atlanta JC - MSNBC)

With the nation's carmakers and dealers in economic freefall, local TV's biggest advertising category has plowed into a wall (read more - Matthew Flamm - Crain's NY Biz)

Eddie and Jobo have been entertaining listeners for nearly 20 years on CBS Radio's WBBM-FM B96. On Friday, their show was suddenly canceled - "The most listened-to day-part now, according to PPMs, is now middays, and middays used to be a throwaway," Eddie Volkman said. "So the days of the overpaid morning star and everybody else making chicken feed may be over" - CBS Radio Chicago Market Manager Rod Zimmerman indicated he is looking to replace the veteran morning team with a new show that emphasizes personality a bit less and music somewhat more   (read more - Lewis Lazare - Chicago Sun-Times) (read more - Phil Rosenthal - Chicago Tribune) (read more - Pamela Jones - CBS 2 Chicago)

A 24 year-old woman was raped while on a date arranged by the station and is suing WXLC in Waukegan and owner NextMedia claiming the station should have done a background check on the man they were promoting as a "great guy," although he was a convicted felon  (read more - WLS TV)  (read more - Nicholas Alajakis - Lake County News-Sun)

Mid-West Family Broadcasting, which owns seven Madison radio stations, has laid off four employees, including Glen Gardner and Tim Morrissey, who handled the morning show on talk outlet "The Pulse," WTDY (1670 AM) (read more - Tom Alesia - Wisconsin State Journal)

A week shy of his third anniversary with KHTK (1140 AM), F.P. Santangelo finished his morning radio show with the "Rise Guys" and was promptly fired - Cost-cutting measures was at the root of the dismissal (read more - Joe Davidson  - Sacramento Bee)

Satellite Radio merged their programming so that subscribers to either service would get the same channels. And I’m loving it. I’ve had both services since they began because I despise what is on "terrestrial" radio. The repetition of hit songs, the shrill and repetitive talk shows and the lack of rich variety is depressing. Worse, the average FM station airs 23 minutes of commercials an hour between the mindless "morning zoo" blabbing and the stale hot hits (read more - Buzz McClain - Star-Telegram)

Now that Rep. Henry Waxman has been named chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, many in the media and advertising industries are wringing their hands with worry. But it's not all bad news (read more - Ira Teinowitz  - Ad Age)

It’s a long way from $700 billion, but the media start-up Six Apart is introducing its own economic bailout plan.
The TypePad Journalist Bailout Program offers recently terminated bloggers and journalists a free pro account (worth $150 annually) on the company’s popular blogging platform (read more - Jenna Wortham - NY Times)

Seeking to bridge "the now to the next," Nokia has set its sights on Internet services, next-generation wireless technology, and mobile application development. Among the company's efforts include the impending beta release of Point & Find, a technology for finding  information and services on the Internet by pointing a camera at real-world objects (read more - Paul Krill - PC World)

For Dana Perino, A Bruising Year - The network stars were gone, the seats half empty and the questioning low-key as Dana Perino held a White House briefing last week, her biggest announcement that the administration would try to ease air traffic for the holidays (read more - Howard Kurtz - Washington Post)

Mike Francesca spoke for 90 minutes in his office - a tattered, Southwestern-themed lair long occupied by Don Imus - about the split (with Chris "Mad Dog" Russo) that hit the FAN, where the relationship stands now and where his show goes from here (read more - Neil Best - Newsday)

News Burps"
* Hillary Clinton decided to become Secretary of State after Barack Obama promised she’d have complete, open access to him at the White House. Said Hillary: “I didn’t even have that with Bill as president”
* The Vatican has forgiven John Lennon for his remarks in 1966 claiming the Beatles were bigger than Jesus. “However,” said the Vatican, “We’re still working on the ‘Letting Yoko sit in the corner during Beatle recording sessions’ thing.”
* Jack Bauer returned last night in “24: Redemption.” Jack not only saved a bunch of little African orphans, he also saved 15% on his car insurance.
* “Twilight” earned a huge $70.6 million at the box office this weekend. 75% of the audience was female. The other 25 percent was trying to get lucky.
* At least the labor screams were real. Ashlee Simpson gave birth to a little boy she named Bronx Mowgli Wentz. Yep. “Bronx Mowgli.” How lame is that name? Even Aunt Jessica was saying, “Boy, is that stupid.”
* "All Comedy Radio" - www.allcomedyradio.com - A unique and diverse format service is currently on HD-2 stations 24/7 in Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Denver, Kansas City, Memphis, New Orleans, Buffalo and others. For affiliate information for your HD-2 station contact: Al Perrotta at acrnews@mac.com

From Claude Hall -- Good news, though. My novel "I Love Radio" was on the old Power Mac…so I’m still writing on that - As I’ve mentioned previously, the novel will focus on 1964-65. Here’s a piece of the material sent to me by Frank Jolley that I more than likely won’t use in the novel, but is good, good, good stuff. Frank Jolley, Los Angeles: "BTW did I tell you I was appointed to the Producers Guild Board of Directors as the Mentor Chairman? In 1967 I'd been fired by Hal Tunis at KVIL. He used ‘you make more money than I do’ as his exit speech (read more - www.ClaudeHallOnline.com)

Charles McCord has a modest goal for the new "Imus in the Morning News Hour" that runs 5-6 a.m. starting today on WABC (770 AM). "The way the news has been sounding these days," he says, "I think a lot of folks just want to know if it's safe to get out of bed" (read more - David HInckley - NY Daily News)

A full house is expected this afternoon in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Mary A. McLaughlin for the sentencing of former CBS3 anchor Larry Mendte, who admitted to snooping on coanchor Alycia Lane and spilling secrets to the tabloids (read more - Michael Klein - Philly Inquirer)

A judge ruled that Gold Coast Radio, which operates Oxnard-based Spanish-language station KMLA, must stop claiming to be No. 1 in Ventura County because it is false and misleading (read more - Raul Hernandez -  Ventura County Star)

From Tommy Kramer -- Does this sound familiar? “Dallas firefighters were summoned to a three-alarm blaze last night at 1224 Mockingbird Lane. There were no injuries to the occupants, but investigators estimated the damage to the house at eighty thousand dollars.”
That’s not the way real people talk. It WAS the way news people talked…about thirty years ago
 (read more - www.TommyKramer.net)

Saginaw radio stations have begun holiday programming (read more - Cole Waterman  - Saginaw News MLive)

Right now radio is stuck in a time warp created by a handful of CEOs who have tried almost everything but using their heads. When Dick Carr prevailed at WIP he had one operating principle that always served him well. It cost no extra money - it was a way to look for the additional benefits that make listeners appreciate you over and over again. He called it "Another Reason to Listen" (read more - Jerry Del Colliano - Inside Music Media)

JacoBlog reader Bruce Barber drove me to Seth Godin's blog about what The New York Times coulda shoulda woulda done to save itself from becoming downsized and obsolete. It's a great read that says a lot about the Times - and about radio, and about other businesses that are trying to make the transition (read more - Fred Jacobs - Jacobs Media)

This month, the congressional committee investigation of the FCC has taken a year but it’s about to be wrapped up. Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak told C-SPAN that the lengthy investigation has been caused by an FCC attempt to run out the clock by being uncooperative, something denied by Rob Kenny, a spokesman for Chairman Kevin Martin (read more - Mel Phillips)

There are ominous signs that certain forces on the left are gearing up for a new attempt to impose a "fairness doctrine" on American television and radio commentary. Incredible as it may sound in retrospect, there actually was a so-called "Fairness Doctrine" in force in the United States from 1949 to 1987. Its ostensible purpose was to compel radio and TV stations to broadcast statements of opinion that "balanced" those being expressed voluntarily (read more - William Rusher - Town Hall)

The Fairness Doctrine was upheld unanimously by the U.S. Supreme Court in Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. F.C.C. in 1969. The Court reasoned that when the government licenses scarce broadcast spectrum, it may attach equal access conditions. Toward the end of the Reagan administration, the FCC itself found the doctrine unconstitutional and discarded it. Wouldn't the Fairness Doctrine bring greater balance to a broadcast media that is heavily dominated by liberals? Not likely. The Fairness Doctrine would not apply to biased news broadcasts, but to commentators who have an overt point of view (read more - Clint Bolick - Forbes)

Supporters of the Fairness Doctrine admit the regulation can infringe on the free speech rights of broadcasters. But they say radio and TV licensees - who are granted exclusive rights to broadcast on frequencies declared public properties - have a special obligation, as public trustees, to present all sides of issues. "The public obligations inherent in the Fairness Doctrine are still in existence and operative, at least on paper," concluded a 2007 study by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank headed by John Podesta, now leading the Obama transition. But, the study added: "Simply reinstating the Fairness Doctrine will do little to address the gap between conservative and progressive talk unless the underlying elements of the public trustee doctrine are enforced (like) the requirements of local accountability and the reasonable airing of important matters" (read more - Dave Helling - McClatchey-Tribune

Ron Riley - ex-WLS-WCAO, and now almost-ex-News Channel 8 great - is leaving the Washington DC-based channel where he's reported weather for the past 15 years. He'll be focused on voice work and other TV media projects in the future

Bubba the Love Sponge's talk morning program, currently heard on WHPT-FM/Tampa (102.5 The Bone) and WFYV-FM/Jacksonville (Rock 105), will soon be heard on four more radio stations WHDR-FM/Miami (93 Rock), WHTQ-FM/Orlando (96.5), WDYL-FM/Richmond (Y101) and WRXK-FM/Ft. Myers (96 K-Rock), will begin broadcasting the Bubba the Love Sponge® Show on Monday, January 5 (visit BTLS.com)

A 36-member panel of Traffic professionals, Sales experts and Traffic Software developers has launched the first of several research projects aimed at “The Monetizing of the Traffic Department” to support the Radio and Television industry. The group is planning to ultimately provide tools and techniques to make more effective use of available inventory. “It’s not a ‘Less is More’ approach, says Larry Keene of the TDGA (read more - TDGA)

Envision Radio Networks’ The Tour Bus adds “97.7 ZOW” WZOW-FM South Bend

Community members are upset over a plan to install 285-foot radio towers in their hillside community. Five towers would be built on a 73-acre plot owned by Salem Radio Properties to broadcast for KRLA-AM 870 (read more -Amanda Baumfeld,  - San Gabriel Valley Tribune)

Costas on the Radio is now heard on over 220 stations via Premiere Radio.  This past weekend, Bob Costas interviewed Frank Gifford - Football Hall of Famer, sports broadcaster and author of The Glory Game: How the 1958 NFL Championship Changed Football Forever and Michael Rosenberg - Detroit Free Press columnist and author of War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest

XM Radio has released its list of Holiday Music channels (read the list)

The 11th annual two hour FM Odyssey's Thanksgiving show will be arriving shortly in radio stations, via MP3 and via US Mail with the tradition that Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie airs at 12 noon (visit FMOdyssey.com)

Rosie O'Donnell, who left The View show in May 2007, told reporters Wednesday that Walters "wanted everyone to believe and think and act [as if the women on 'The View'] get along and are really good friends. And you know, that's just not the reality" (read more - Page Six - NY Post)

British regulators rejected a plan on Friday to add locally focused video news to BBC Web sites in Britain, dealing a setback to the digital ambitions of the BBC, which has expanded aggressively on the Internet (read more - Erice Pfanner - NY Times)

For the third consecutive year, The American Forces Network will broadcast the Brooks & Dunn American Country Christmas to our troops overseas

Jonathan Ross is to keep his job at the BBC after the corporation’s governing body ruled that senior Radio 2 executives were to blame for the broadcast of obscene telephone calls to the actor Andrew Sachs (read more - Patrick Foster - The Times U.K.)  (read more - Charles Moore - The Telegraph U.K.)

Salt Lake City breaks into the top 30 market list + Joe Johnson of "Johnson and Johnson" on KUBL had a bizarre duct-tape contest last week (read more - Lynn Arave - Deseret News)

Arbitron numbers for Birmingham, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Honolulu and Indianapolis (read the numbers)

"Rock and Roll Radio The Fun Years: 1955–1975" By Clark Weber with Neal Samors is now available through Amazon.com, barnes and noble.com, and borders.com 

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